Call of Duty Switches to Three-Year Development Cycle

Activision has announced that a third developer, Sledgehammer, will join Infinity Ward and Treyarch in producing Call of Duty titles.

It's no secret that Activision's latest Call of Duty title, Call of Duty: Ghosts didn't sell quite as well as the publisher had hoped. Activision Publishing president and CEO Eric Hirshberg believes that this is a quality, rather than quantity problem, and has announced that a third developer, Sledgehammer, will join Infinity Ward and Treyarch in producing Call of Duty titles. This means that each developer will have three years, instead of two, to produce a title, which should theoretically increase the quality of the games.

"There are several advantages to doing this," said Hirshberg. "This first is of course quality; this will give our designers more time to envision and to innovate for each title. Simultaneously it will give our content creators more focus on DLC and micro DLC which, as you know, have become large and high-margin opportunities, and significant engagement drivers. Finally, it'll give our teams more time to polish, making sure that we relive the best possible experience to our fans each and every time."

Sledgehammer, the new studio, had previously collaborated with Treyarch on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and will lead development on this year's new Call of Duty title, expected to release in late 2014.

"Sledgehammer is a triple-A studio built from the ground-up around prudent talent with a 90-plus-rated pedigree both in studio leadership and throughout the organization," Hirshberg assured his shareholders during the earnings results call on Thursday.

What do you think? Will this help Call of Duty, or is Hirshberg missing the whole point? Perhaps they should switch to a three-year development cycle... but just with a single developer, to, you know, actually give people time to get bored with the current Call of Duty before the next one rolls around? Sounds crazy, I know.